At the August 20, 2019, Village Board Meeting, the Board voted to amend the Village’s open burning regulations. The Board began discussions regarding the regulations after several residents raised concerns over the health and safety risks associated with the open burning of landscape material. The Board also heard from several residents in favor of open burning as a cost effective way to handle leaf and landscape debris cleanup. Following these discussions, the Board compared how open burning landscape debris is handled in surrounding communities and considered several options including no changes to the regulations, eliminating open burning completely and making some changes to the current regulations.

After careful deliberations, the Board voted to make changes to the open burning regulations for recreational purposes and landscape debris to allow burning as follows:

Recreational campfires must:

Be no larger than 3’ x 3’ x 3’.

Use untreated wood only, within a self-contained outdoor wood burning device or an outdoor fireplace.

Occur only between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10:00 a.m. and midnight, on Friday and Saturday.

Open burning of leaves, diseased trees, and tree debris must:

Only occur on the premises on which they are generated.

Occur between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on sunny days only.

Be completely extinguished after 3:00 p.m.

Occur only with a wind speed of less than ten miles per hour.

Not occur during inversion conditions or ozone alert day. To see weather conditions, visit the Kane County Environmental Health Services website at kanehealth.com/Pages/Air-Quality.aspx or check your local weather forecast.

Use only dry materials.

Be supervised at all times by an adult until the fire is extinguished.

Have available within ten feet of the burning material a fire extinguisher, garden hose or water source.

Not occur in any public right of way.

Not occur within 20 feet of any building, structure, right of way or property line.

These changes are effective immediately.

Residents are encouraged to check with their homeowners association for burning regulations specific to each neighborhood as many do not permit the burning of landscape material as a part of their covenants.